The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Valley of the Moon, by Jack London

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Title: The Valley of the Moon

Author: Jack London

Posting Date: September 17, 2008 [EBook #1449]
Release Date: September, 1998

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF THE MOON ***

Produced by Jerry Wann and Dianne Bean

THE VALLEY OF THE MOON

By Jack London

BOOK I

CHAPTER 1

"You hear me, Saxon? Come on along. What if it is the Bricklayers? I'll
have gentlemen friends there, and so'll you. The Al Vista band'll be
along, an' you know it plays heavenly. An' you just love dancin'---"

Twenty feet away, a stout, elderly woman interrupted the girl's
persuasions. The elderly woman's back was turned, and the back-loose,
bulging, and misshapen--began a convulsive heaving.

"Gawd!" she cried out. "O Gawd!"

She flung wild glances, like those of an entrapped animal, up and down
the big whitewashed room that panted with heat and that was thickly
humid with the steam that sizzled from the damp cloth under the irons of
the many ironers. From the girls and women near her, all swinging irons
steadily but at high pace, came quick glances, and labor efficiency
suffered to the extent of a score of suspended or inadequate movements.
The elderly woman's cry had caused a tremor of money-loss to pass among
the piece-work ironers of fancy starch.

She gripped herself and her iron with a visible effort, and dabbed
futilely at the frail, frilled garment on the board under her hand.

"I thought she'd got'em again--didn't you?" the girl said.

"It's a shame, a women of her age, and... condition," Saxon answered,
as she frilled a lace ruffle with a hot fluting-iron. Her movements were
delicate, safe, and swift, and though her face was wan with fatigue and
exhausting heat, there was no slackening in her pace.

"An' her with seven, an' two of 'em in reform school," the girl at the
next board sniffed sympathetic agreement. "But you just got to come
to Weasel Park to-morrow, Saxon. The Bricklayers' is always
lively--tugs-of-war, fat-man races, real Irish jiggin', an'... an'
everything. An' The floor of the pavilio